Sharpening Your Delegation Skills - April 2008

A Professional Tells us How

Delegating is one of those workplace skills you don’t learn in school but right on the job. Some of us have been fortunate and have had a great boss to learn from, others have an innate sense and do it effortlessly. But for the vast majority, it’s something that requires thought, training and practice. If you become adept at it, you, your firm and your employees will flourish, but if you don’t learn to master this so-called ‘soft skill’, you won’t go very far.

So what does it take? Oomph spoke to an accomplished professional whose delegating skills enable her to wear many hats and successfully manage complex projects and multiple responsibilities.

Monica Contreras, is a project manager, planner and registered architect with 21 years of experience directing complex commercial and institutional building projects of all sizes from design through to construction, implementation and occupancy. She is Vice President of Construction and Capital Projects for Urbanspace Property Group and a Lecturer at the Schulich School of Business, where she teaches the core course on the Development Process for the Real Property MBA Program. She was Assistant Dean and Director of Planning & Information Technology at the University of Toronto and Project Manager, Strategic and Capital Projects, at York University.

Oomph: Many people admit not knowing where to begin or how to approach delegating. How do you decide what to delegate and to whom?

Monica: You start by having well-defined roles, so you need to know what people were hired for and what their responsibilities are.

Oomph: Fear of 'accidents' or shoddy work is probably the main reason people avoid delegating. How do you decide what level of decision making to delegate?  

Monica: It’s an issue of managing risk - what is the dollar amount you can lose if things go wrong? With that in mind, you look at the person's skills: can they do the job properly; do they have the skills they need? Also, you have to make sure you are matching the complexity of the task to the person, so you avoid making a junior employee fail or end up with a bored senior on your hands.

Next, I look at time: can they do the work or the task on time? And if they can't - do I have the time to do it properly in the event I have to pick up the slack or redo the work? Lastly, I look at willingness and enthusiasm, which do matter, because you can’t give people a challenge they don’t want. You have to match aspirations with the task: does the person want to expand their knowledge in this area?

Oomph: You mention time, which is another reason people give for not delegating, especially when dealing with new employees or with an employee who has not performed that type of assignment before. People think it's easier and faster to just do the work themselves. What's your approach?

Monica: You have to be realistic: you can’t expect the person to succeed in the same way you would – it’s unfair and will lead to failure. The formula I use is: if it takes me an hour to do a task, double it by 10 if you're dealing with someone new. 

Oomph: Have you ever tested an employee’s growth potential by delegating tasks to them? What type of tasks were these? What was the outcome?

Monica: Yes, I have and the outcome was very good. It was a young designer and I tested him with progressively larger projects. He rose to the challenge every time. Ultimately I gave him a rather large project and he did a beautiful job.

Oomph: Do you have some tasks you are currently responsible for that could possibly be delegated?
Monica: Oh yes, my flaw is that I take too much on – I’m always having to think through what I am doing and what I should delegate...

Oomph: That's the case for many of us! It's something one can always improve on, but you need discipline. Monica, your insights have been great. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with us?

Monica: Well, I think that delegating is not about expecting perfection – it's about understanding that someone will grow. On the other hand, you also need to realize that some people cannot be trusted to manage things on their own. They can only be instructed.